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Fabricius

Ioannes Albertus (Johann Albert Faber). A celebrated bibliographer,
born at Leipzig, November 11, 1668. He studied at Leipzig and Quedlinburg, taking the degrees
in philosophy, and afterwards pursuing medicine and theology. At Quedlinburg, two books that
he found in the library of Samuel Schmidt (Barthuiss's Adversaria and Morhoff's
Polyhistor) gave him the suggestions that led to the preparation of his two
great works, the Bibliotheca Latina and the still more important
Bibliotheca Graeca. The first appeared at Hamburg in 1697, and was revised and
emended by Ernesti in three volumes (Leipzig, 1773). Its secondary title explains
its scope: Notitia Auctorum Veterum Latinorum Quorumcumque Scripta ad Nos
Venerunt. The divisions adopted in this compilation are,

1.

The writers preceding the age of Tiberius;

2.

The writers from Tiberius to the Antonines;

3.

The writers from the Antonines to the decay of the language;

4.

The fragments from old authors, with chapters on the early Christian literature. The
Bibliotheca Graeca is further styled Notitia Scriptorum Veterum
Graecorum Quorumcumque Monumenta Integra aut Fragmenta Edita Extant, tum Plerorumque e
Manuscript. ac Deperditis. This work, which has been styled maximus
antiquae eruditionis thesaurus, is in fourteen quarto volumes, appearing at
Hamburg at intervals from 1705 to 1728, and subsequently revised by Harles (Hamburg,
1790). Its divisions are marked off by Homer, Plato, Christ, Constantine, and by the
capture of Constantinople in 1453, with a sixth section devoted to canon law, medicine, and
jurisprudence. Besides these two great compilations, Fabricius, who was a most voluminous
writer, put forth 126 other works, some of them, however, being books that he edited only,
and none of them of any especial interest to the classical student.

Fabricius held at different times the posts of librarian and Professor of Rhetoric and
Ethics (1699), and Rector of the School of St. John at Hamburg. He declined
chairs at Greifswald (1701) and Wittenberg. He died at Hamburg, April 30, 1736.
The details of his life are given by his sonin-law, Reimar, in his work De Vita
et Scriptis J. A. Fabricii Commentarius (Hamburg, 1757).